Department of Public Utilities, Columbus Ohio

Mr. [redacted],
I apologize for the situation you find yourself in with the Department of Public Utilities and that the situation has not been resolved to your satisfaction.
You stated you have a recording of the call you made to report your payment. If you have a recording of the call you should have mentioned that to the first CSR you spoke to on August 23rd, 2016. We would have taken that recording along with the date, time, CSR’s name and sent that to our
IT manager and asked them do an audit to see what was going on with the system. As you have been informed we have been unable to find any calls from your number on Monday August 22nd, 2016.
I will provide a record of our correspondence and a time line for your calls to the Ohio Attorney General office or any other authority requesting information.
Thank you
Martha  T[redacted]
Customer Service Supervisor
Department of Public Utilities

Mr [redacted],Thank you for contacting the Department of Public Utilities and allowing us an opportunity to address your concerns.When the February 9th, payment was made the account had a balance of $1170.96. Please see below for an explanation of how the account was charged.On December 23rd, a call...

was made to our office by [redacted] about a payment to the account for a shut off notice. The balance on the account was $383.52.  A $132.00 payment was made and an extension was placed on the account for the $251.52 bill due December 27th. The bill was extended thru January 13th, 2017. On January 5th, 2017 a bill was generated for $517.50, due January 26th, 2017. On February 3rd, 2017 a bill was generated for $401.94 due February 24th, 2017. This brought your account balance to $1170.96.When the $251.52 payment was not paid on January 13th, the payment plan defaulted and put the account in disconnect for February 8th, in addition the January 26th bill also went past its due date and was in disconnect status as of February 16th.The account at [redacted] is now on an extension thru March 3rd, for $913.96.If you need additional information please call our office at ###-###-####.Thank youMartha T[redacted]Customer Service SupervisorDepartment of Public Utilities

Dear Mr. [redacted],
Thank you for contacting the Department of Public Utilities and allowing us the opportunity to address your concerns.
I apologize if you feel the customer service representatives you spoke to were rude.  I have listened to all the calls you made on August 23rd and
24th and...

feel that they all made every effort to resolve the situation, you even mentioned this to several of the CSR’s you spoke to.  You mentioned
that after a CSR told you there is no guarantee we can come back out today and then hung up on you. The call ended where the CSR was explaining our process for applying payments and then she began asking if you could hear her, this went on for almost 50 seconds, she ended the call by stating she could not hear you so please call back.  In your next call you mentioned that you could hear her but knew she couldn’t hear you, the call was not terminated in order to not deal with your situation.
I understand per your phone calls and correspondence that you called in to report the payment on Monday August 22nd, 2016. As you have been
informed we could not find any record of this call, we have searched by both your phone number and the time you stated you called.  I listened to all the calls that came during that time frame from every number that came in and there is no record of your call.  I have spoken to our technology department to see if there were any system problems during that time. Our phone system records the calls for customer service, 311 and our distribution department.  If there are any issues they would be aware of the problem and can see missing gaps of time where calls were not recorded.  I asked them to check the system for any issues and per the IT manager the system was functioning.
I do apologize for the experience you had in regards to your service being disconnected. In the future you can ask for a confirmation number for the order that we generate to stop a pending turn off and the note number where your confirmation number is documented. You can keep this information for your records.
If you need additional information please contact our office.
Thank you,
Martha T.[redacted]
Customer Service Supervisor
Department of Public Utilities

Thank you for contacting the Department of Public Utilities and allowing us to respond to your complaint.
On July 13th, 2013 your tenant [redacted] was finaled off of the account at  [redacted] and you were activated back on the account.  As you stated Ms. [redacted] had some...

unpaid bills on her account which prevented us from activating your new tenant on the account. Bills began generating on the account under your name and were sent to the billing address we had on the account - PO Box 9205 Columbus OH 43209. 
Billing Dates                                 Bill Amount                     Date Paid
7/1/13 - 7/16/13                        $12.86         �...⇄ /> 7/16/13 - 10/11/13                    $65.92             ...⇄ /> 10/11/13 - 1/15/14                    $279.63             ...⇄ /> 1/15/14 - 4/14/14                     $296.59            ...⇄ payment
4/14/15 - 4/18/14                     $11.07            �...⇄  no payment
Your tenant, [redacted]n, was activated on the account on April 18th, 2014. This finaled your account and started her as your tenant.  The last 2 bills on the account were sent to you in April 2014 and June 2014 and were not paid.
I apologize if you did not receive the original bills or the notices that were sent. Due to the number of notices that are sent to the property no additional contact is made before monies owed are certified to property taxes or the collection process begins.
You stated that you had paid your final bill, we do not show a payment on the account after 04/18/14. This payment paid charges that were due in February. 
I hope this explains the billing for your property.  If you need additional information please let me know.
[redacted]
Customer Service Supervisor

Dear Mr. Speakman
Thank you for contacting the Department of Public Utilities and allowing us to respond to your concerns.  I apologize that you feel you were treated rudely, however, I have listened to calls that came from your phone number on November 10th, 2015 and November 11th, 2015 and...

I do not feel our employees were rude and they did not refuse to give your their name. 
On November 10th at 9:44 AM you spoke to a CSR about your high bill. You informed her that you had a plumber come to your property and they did not find any leaks.  She then went thru all the common appliances in a home that are problem spots for leaks. When you told her that everything was fine and no leaks she stated that there was a problem at the property since we had confirmed the reading.  She suggested that if a leak was found and depending where the leak was located once it was repaired there may be an adjustment made to the sewer portion.
On November 11th at 8:47 AM you spoke to a CSR about your high bill and at that time you informed her that your girlfriend had left the water hose on for a few days. She explained to you that we cannot adjust the sewer portion off of the bill for this type of leak.  You asked to speak to someone else and you were transferred to Doris.  In the discussion with Doris you alternated between having a toilet leak and leaving the hose running for a few days.
Based on these calls I am not sure what happened at the property. Unfortunately if a leak occurs at a property and the leak is caused by a running toilet, a hot water tank  either a hose bibb or hose leak, humidifiers, sump pumps or a leak caused by vandalism. There is no adjustment make to the bill. 
If you discover a leak and it was not one of the items mentioned above, ie: a leak that went thru the service line after the meter, once it is repaired by an approved contractor please contact us and there is a possibility some of the sewer charges can be adjusted.  We will need documentation of the repair.
You were offered an extended payment plan, which we would be more than happy to set up for you.  Please feel free to contact us at ###-###-#### for further assistance.
[redacted]
Customer Service Supervisor
 
 
 
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